Multiple agencies, hikers help fallen horse rider

Multiple agencies collaborated on and over Gila National Forest land off of Fort Bayard last week to rescue an injured equestrian who had fallen from her horse. Meanwhile, a passerby helped to keep the injured woman company and, in the end, return back with the horse from which she’d fallen.

On Thursday afternoon, Silver City resident Emma Humphrey was hiking the trail to the Big Tree on the forest land adjoining Fort Bayard with her visiting mother and a friend with two dogs when they were approached by a new visitor, an iconic Western image. A saddled horse but with no rider ran past.

“Obviously we knew someone had fallen,” said Humphrey, who has experience on horseback.

A moment later, a second horse followed, this time with a rider. The woman atop the horse asked if they had seen the first and confirmed the hikers’ suspicions. Her friend had fallen from her horse. She had fallen hard and thought she’d broken her ankle.

“She was definitely hurt,” Humphrey said. “That’s a long way to fall, because her horse was at least 17 hands.”

Before riding after her friend’s fallen horse, the second rider — whose name was not provided — had called Central Dispatch and left her phone with her injured friend. Humphrey said that when she and her party arrived at the scene to help however they could, the injured woman was lying on the ground, speaking to Gila Regional Emergency Medical Services on the phone.

That conversation kicked off a complicated collaboration between many agencies, according to Gila Regional EMS Director Eloy Medina.

“Initially we asked to go in through Dragonfly Trail, but were advised that we should go in through Fort Bayard,” Medina said. “There, we met up with the Sheriff’s Department to see what the best way to find her was.”

To identify the patient’s location, Medina said that his agency enlisted the U.S. Forest Service and Whiskey Creek Volunteer Fire Department. He said the Forest Service brought ATVs for EMS personnel to ride on the search.

“At this point, we had no direct communication with the patient and weren’t told exactly where they were,” Medina said.

So, EMS requested aid from Native Air — the hospital’s contracted air ambulance service — to help them find the injured woman. Medina said that due to the double coverage, the Grant County Sheriff’s Department and Native Air located the patient at roughly the same time.

Medina thanked his staff and all coordinating agencies for helping to find the patient.

“This team effort made it a good outcome for the patient and kept her from feeling nearly as much pain as she could have,” he said.

Humphrey said that her participation in the ordeal lasted from around 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. When the injured rider was taken to Gila Regional to tend to her wounds, there was still a horse. When the horse would not cooperate being led, Humphrey said the solution was clear. She rode the horse back to the trailhead. What’s more, Humphrey said the whole interaction happened because she and her party had continued on a path of the trail they hadn’t originally intended.

“It was ridiculous,” she said. “But it was an adventure. And no one died.”